The Crispus Attucks Service Learning group is a group of IU School of Medicine students who volunteer at Crispus Attucks High School, a local high school that has traditionally been a medical magnet school, to teach the students more about the health sciences and bolster interest in careers in medicine.
This past spring, we held our very first Health Career Panel for Crispus Attucks students. This panel consisted of several medical, nursing, physical therapy, and physician assistant students and was a way for the high school students to learn more about careers in these fields. We spent about an hour with approximately 50 Crispus Attucks students, just answering any questions that they had and talking about what life is like in our respective professional schools. The Crispus Attucks students had lots of questions and seemed to get a lot out of the presentation. The panelists also had a lot of fun and many of them said they’d like to return next year to help out again. Although it was difficult to coordinate schedules and communicate between several different professional schools, the event ended up running very smoothly. I think this will be an event that continues to occur and grow every year so that these high school students can learn more and more about possible future careers in the medical field!
